DISOBEDIENT TO ADULT PARENTS IN THE END TIMES [DEAR BRETHREN 16]

Just as a vital reminder to us all, to disobey God is not to obey God. We all know John 3.16. But do we know the last verse in that chapter proclaimed by John the baptizer, the very cousin of our Lord:

John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

Many people today in God’s church where cultures promote a fierce independent spirit like the Corinthians firmly believe that their parents have absolutely no sway over them as an adult.

I know. I used to be one of them years ago.

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Well, I thought, my parents are unsaved, and some of their ideas are really strange. And I placated them by being sincerely interested in all they did.

But…obeying my adult parents. What nonsense. And I considered my walk a close discipleship with the Lord.

Certainly, young children need to obey and I was a focused, firmly loveable Dad with my own kids, and those in our assembly. But once old enough, they were on their own with no strings attached. I mean, that only makes good sense, right? After all, this was America!

And the sacred writings, the holy Scriptures, seemed to confirm that strongly:

Ephesians 6:1-3 Children (not “men” like 2 Tim. 3), obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER (which is the first commandment with a promise), SO THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH YOU, AND THAT YOU MAY LIVE LONG ON THE EARTH.

All Scripture is inspired…

But the Holy Spirit, praise God, had other plans for me.

Did God Say the Old Testament Still Applies In Part?

“Marc,” He seemed to say, “did you notice that Paul again quoted the Old
Testament?”

Well, yes I did actually. And I was noticing that more and more. Finally I came to realize that the original contract with mankind, God’s “Old” Testament, had been referred to directly over 300 times in the New Covenant.

So, it followed that the “Old” was still new in some way. You can read what the Scriptures say about itself here. Also, we can learn why God chose to include so much of the Old Covenant in the New right here.

When the Spirit began urging me to reconsider my doctrine on this, He kept bringing me back to a very disturbing phrase: disobedient to parents. It was in two passages both in 2 Timothy 3 and in Romans 1.

And it was painfully obvious that the context (how the phrase was used there) was speaking to adults, not children. And in 2 Timothy 3 Paul commands his followers to “avoid such men (people) as these.”

How can we avoid the children in our own homes?

We can’t, and that’s the point. God then brought an American brother with a major ministry into our lives that began the journey away from this part of the American gospel. Jonathan Lindvall from Bold Christian Living taught very radical doctrines for all parents. At the end of this article, you may listen to one of his messages called The Curse of Individualism. For it too deals with obeying your parents. Adult parents. His own story with his parents bears repeating.

Another clue surfaced when I approached a home church leader who I admired and respected for his ecclesiology and asked him about this passage of 2 Tim 3 and its meaning.

“Oh, that’s just the Old Testament stuff,” he exclaimed. “It doesn’t apply today.”

When I pressed him a bit to explain further, he just condescendingly dismissed me. End of conversation. And I had borne the brunt of his other opinions that I vehemently disagreed with for years. He was, as we define it at Walk Worthy, a stonewaller.

Again, Paul Let’s Us Have It Between the Eyes

What does God’s Word teach us in all this? Let’s dive in to the gold mine of God’s heart and mind. First the passages describing the sin. Remember the “last days” are from that time until this present day.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men (adult, self-professing believers) will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to (adult) parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; avoid such men (adult, self-professing believers) as these.

This sin delivers difficult, perilous, times to the offended party: the adult parents. Notice the other heinous sins that accompany these times, and the sin of being disobedient to parents. Evil, evil despicable things. And it’s not mentioning children like other New Covenant passages reveal.

And to top it all up, those who closely follow Jesus Christ must avoid these people. What a heartbreak when a parent has to avoid the adult child due to the child’s sin against the parents. Jesus did declare He came to bring a sword, and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.

Luke 12:50-53 “But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three.

“They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

Second then we have the passage in Romans 1, and the consternation it causes in a believers heart that real people actually live this way.

Romans 1:18+ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (adult people) who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them…And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to (adult) parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

Again, notice the other sins that are packed around adult children who disobey their parents. Dangerous sins.

Well, then, we explore and discover the many examples God leaves us of the way adult children should treat their parents. This was an eye opener to me, but not a big surprise since the heart of God is always for the “elder” person.

It’s only in a disintegrating culture that the majority of the people revere youth and disdain old age. What demonic foolishness. God’s way is exactly the opposite. Exactly.

And lest we forget…these examples are given before the formal giving of the 10 commandments and God’s Law at Mt. Sinai.

Moses asks Jethro for permission

Noah, Jacob, Moses, The Rechabites, Their Sons, Daughters and Families

All three grown, married sons of Noah (Shem, Ham and Japheth) obeyed their father and helped build the Ark. All three obeyed their father and gathered a year’s supply of food for the Ark (Genesis 6:21). All three believed God and honored their father in spite of the fact that the entire world ridiculed their father Noah. And for 120 years. Do we get that? 120 years. What faithful loyalty…

Genesis 7:7 Then Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him entered the ark because of the water of the flood.

When Jacob declared all his kin that they would travel to Egypt at son Joseph’s suggestion because there was a famine, they all uprooted and no argument or dissension is recorded. All of Jacob’s sons were by that time fathers, and two of them (Judah and Asher) were grandfathers.

Genesis 46:5-7 Then Jacob arose from Beersheba; and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob and their little ones and their wives in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. They took their livestock and their property, which they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and came to Egypt, Jacob and all his descendants with him: his sons and his grandsons with him, his daughters and his granddaughters, and all his descendants he brought with him to Egypt.

Moses, after his encounter with God at the burning bush, went to ask his father-in-law Jethro if he could leave. Notice it’s his father-in-law, not father.

Exodus 4:18 Then Moses departed (from God at the burning bush) and returned to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please, let me go, that I may return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see if they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”

The entire 35th Chapter of Jeremiah is devoted to God’s approval of the Rechabites. These descendants of Jonadab the son of Rechab were grown, married men. They refused to drink wine or buy land because their father Jonadab, the son of Rechab had commanded them in this way.

Jeremiah 35:8-10 “We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, not to drink wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons or our daughters, nor to build ourselves houses to dwell in; and we do not have vineyard or field or seed. We have only dwelt in tents, and have obeyed and have done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us.

And God uses the peerless obedient example of the Rechabites, 250 years after their ancestor commanded them never to drink, in being disobedient to adult parents.

Jeremiah 35:12-14 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Go and say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, “Will you not receive instruction by listening to My words?” declares the LORD.

“The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, which he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are observed. So they do not drink wine to this day, for they have obeyed their father’s command. But I have spoken to you again and again; yet you have not listened to Me…

What? Death To The Rebel Child?

Now…right after the 10 Commandments are given in Exodus 20, we see this command of God as a part of the Law.

Exodus 21:15 “He who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

Leviticus 20:9 If there is anyone who curses his father or his mother, he shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother, his bloodguiltiness is upon him.

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 “If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them, then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown. They shall say to the elders of his city, `This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ read more.” Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so you shall remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear of it and fear.

Deuteronomy 27:16 ‘Cursed (woe) is he who dishonors his father or mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

Death is the result for hitting, or even cursing, your parents! Today, there would be a lot of dead children, no? Physically striking or verbally abusing a parent is no different to God than murder. They are capital crimes worthy of death!

Having the blood of others on our head is an awful consequence, and carries over from the original law…but we can be innocent of this when we obey.

Matthew 27:24-25 When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this Man’s blood; see to that yourselves.” And all the people said, “His bloodshall be on us and on our children!”

Acts 20:25-30 “And now, behold, I (Paul) know that all of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will no longer see my face. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God…

Honoring Parents To Be Well and Live Long

These Old Covenant doctrines are still part of the New Covenant, as they are quoted anew as inspired Scripture.

Deuteronomy 5:16 ‘Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you on the land which the LORD your God gives you.

Ephesians 6:1-4 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER (which is the first commandment with a promise), SO THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH YOU, AND THAT YOU MAY LIVE LONG ON THE EARTH. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Enemies in your own household

The Worst Enemies Are in Our Own House

When we walk closely with God, our own family will very likely be our worst enemy.

Micah 7:6 For son treats father contemptuously, Daughter rises up against her mother, Daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; A man’s enemies are the men of his own household.

Matthew 10:21-22 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.

Matthew 10:34-36 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN’S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD.

Luke 12:50-53 “But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three.

“They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

Honor, Not Evil

And we’re obligated to return the blessing to our parents when they need help in their older years. We see here how the false religious leaders got around this. Unfortunately, it happens all too often today as our parents waste away in someone else’s care.

Mark 7:8-13 “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men. He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. For Moses said, ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER’; and, ‘HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER, IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH’; but you say, ‘If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is to say, given to God),’ you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother; thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”

Are we living as we should? Or are we passing judgment on others while practicing the very things we condemn?

Romans 2:1-11 Therefore you have no excuse, every one of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.

There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.

Are we fussing with our parents as adults when it’s clear we should be obeying them even now? Are we irreconcilable with them, or others, and headed for the lake of fire?

Are we just avoiding our parents so they can’t ask us to do something? Or are we actively asking them for advice, help, or permission?

Are we hanging our hat on the myth that the Old Testament, by and large, has no applicability for today? If so, what are the Scriptures here that speak to us since the New Testament wouldn’t be complied until decades later?

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Hopefully, It’s Not Too Late…Repent Or Perish Says The King

Personally, I only wish I had known of this sooner so my lost parents could have seen the Holy Spirit’s power and leading in my life as I honored them to a much greater extent.

Are you treating your adult parents with contempt in any way? Dismissing them as old buffoons perhaps?

God’s power leads us to repentance

Or worse?

Then according to Paul’s admonition, we’d have to avoid you completely as a professing believer…and he declares in Roman’s 1 that those human creatures will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the kingdom of the lake of fire of Satan himself.

Your children and grandchildren are watching us every day to see if we’re obeying our own adult parents. And if not, do you really think they’ll obey and honor you when they become adults?

Hardly…

This is as serious as it gets, beloved. Let us prove our grace infused love for Christ by finally obeying Him in this vital area. Or as He mused thousands of years ago:

Luke 13:1-5 Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate?

“I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

“Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem?

“I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Mercy, Lord – and this too?

Luke 6:46-49 “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?

“Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.

“But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”

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To listen to The Curse of Individualism by Jonathan Linville of Bold Christian Living, which describes in part how we’re to be obedient to adult parents, click here.

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To see how being irreconcilable fits with being disobedient to adult parents, click here.

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Please comment on this post right below. Feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion.

Your friend and brother in fighting the good fight,

Marc

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Saints, we’re one day closer to Home, and Him! Love Him wholeheartedly!

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Comments

Jesus and the New Testament authors quoted from the Old Testament at least 700 times. If you add the New Testament allusions to the Old Testament, that number increases into the thousands. God gave us one continuing revelation, not two separate revelations with the older being completely supplanted by the new. That is why Christian Bibles contain both Old and New Testaments. Those designations, by the way, would have been completely foreign to Peter and Paul.

Amen, brother Thurman — we see the direct quotes as 300+, and it’s extremely important. “All scripture is inspired” was also, at the least, referring back to the OT! Thanks for your insightful comment.